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Gilbster - Good to see you had a better season than the one before, hopefully you can build on it.
try to sign a foreign scout, i signed a german one. He brought with him some scout reports on german players, one of whom i signed. There is also loads of high quality german/ 2nd Nationality german players that appear on the player search screen, i usually have to wait until nov/dec to trial them and some will sign for reasonable wages. Many are described as 'the next ....' and promising.

Lewes captain Jernade Meade in action for Arsenal in the 2010/11 season

Media Prediction: 23rd
My Prediction: Playoffs
Final Position: 10th

A disappointing season in the league was softened by a good run in the FA Cup where we were beaten by Nottingham Forest in the dying moments of the third round. A small improvement over our place last season means that with a solid run of form we can be right up in the thick of it for promotion next season, I'll be needing to do a bit of a squad reconstruction though during the off season.

-

FA Cup: A big run this season in the cup, as we were narrowly defeated 2-1 by Nottingham Forest in the Third Round.FA Trophy: Bath struck back just three days after a 2-1 league defeat to win 1-0 in the Fourth Round.

Managers Player of the Season

Christian Nanetti: Steadfast contributor this season, chipping in with 17 assists in 24 games this season whilst playing on the wings.

Really happy with how things are going so far. On a run of 7 successive wins, which started on the back of a cutting last minute defeat at Old Trafford. We have Man City on New Year's Day, so it's about to fall apart, but I'll take my moment of glory while I have it!

Unlucky on the finals defeat, gibster. Hopefully it will be automatic promotion for you next year!

**

Having beaten Huddersfield in the FA Cup only to go out to Kidderminster the next round, I feel slightly deflated. But on the plus side, it gives us the opportunity to refocus on the league and catch up on the teams above us (We sit 12th). With a game in hand, in some cases two, he have the opportunity to jump up into and around the playoffs. We need to push harder and our strikers need to start scoring. Our defence is strong, but to win games you need to score. 19 games and just 19 goals is not good. The only teams worse are the three at the foot of the table. Goals conceded however is the least in the league at just 14... but like I said, we need to score goals to make that record count for anything. 12th is good, but it could be better if the strikers could learn to score.

"League 1 potential" really isnt showing.

Edit: Just played Dover and beat them 3v0 easy. Big scoring game for us. A midfielder got one and a youth player got the other two after bringing him up to the main squad to replace out 'better' striker. The youth player is rated poorly in comparison, but performed way above what our strikers have been so far this year. Staying in the squad for the time being now.

Not happy with my end of season form, we had a chance for a top 6 finish. In the Europa League nwe made the Quarter Finals but Schalke proved too strong for us but I am more than happy with our performance in the Competition. We went out of the National Competitions early so there's no European Football in Hendon next season!

#56

Promotion! \o/ And especially well-deserved considering the ref almost robbed us! Luckily new Czech striker Jan Tlusty could take one back in time and the margins were on our side in the subsequent penalty shoot-out when Volkers got away with a horribly weak punt down the middle for the final deciding penalty, fortunately seeing the keeper jump right with no chance to turn back. The preceding season was fairly straight-forward, sitting in 2nd for most of it with the occasional chance to catch up with Burton but never quite getting there.

Doing well in the cups as well, reaching the FA Cup 4th Rnd where Premiership side Fulham proved too much for us and grabbing our first piece of real silverware by winning the FA Trophy!

I really can't complain. We hit a bad spell when both Jakobsen and Tlusty went out with months-long injuries (Jakobsen still being absent with his) which crippled us quite severely in offense, but really, on the whole we're doing fine. I'm mostly nervous about how we'll hold up in League 2 against the pro teams.

Backup-keeper Slocombe excepted there isn't a name on this list that wasn't integral this year. Oastler and Grujic formed our new central defence while Chorão, Deisler and Koljander solidified the midfield. It's a strong line-up for this level; we had every reason to do well.

Well that was a strange season, started off ok, got bad, got worse, formation clicked, flew up the table, had a clusterf**k of injuries then pulled it round to finish 3rd. As you can see from the graph that pretty much sums our season up! We scored over 100 goals in the league which was a bit helpful

I didnt do my usual thing of getting rid of everbody and replacing them, I slowly edged out the worse players by bringing in better players over the course the season. As said, we finished 3rd and that meant the Playoffs! In the semi we play Dartford who we drew and got beat by in the league, first was the away leg where we pulled one of our best performances of the season and walloped them 4-0! Which meant all we needed to do was not f**k it up on the home league - we played out a very dull 0-0 draw which I was more then happy with!

In the final we had Chelsmford (we drew and beat in the league) in what was a very scrappy first half neither team took any control and was 0-0 at HT, the pattern of the game continued after the break but a goal mouth scramble lead to Michael Gordon to lash one in and put us 1 up! Even after that neither team could do much and we played out the rest of the game with no scares to give us promotion to the BSP!!!

Grats on promotion Scab and Darren and good luck to you Dan on securing an even better finish in the Prem next year.

Im still hoping to score a few more goals, but fitness is down and injuries taking their tol on the main squad is making it somewhat difficult to keep us winning. Luckily the defence is holding up and youth striker Andrews is playing his part at the front to give us a boost. Scored the same amount of goals as our main striker who has started 14 more games.

Looks like it'll be a 6357 all-seater. Dubious about the sensibility in this when we have 4000 (1060 seated) capacity Rookery Hill likely expandable; the new stadium no doubt won't be expandable to a decent Premier League size and we're now stuck with it for a minimum of 20 years due to how the game handles these things. Oh well, who knows, maybe I'll actually be stuck in the lower leagues for that long!

Table | Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2
What a ridiculous year. Second place for much of the year, only to close the gap on Colwyn Bay when they were leading by 8 points with 10 to go. Only to lose the 3 point advantage I had with 4 remaining, to lose the title by a mere 2 points. If they drew their final game, we would have won the title, thanks to making up a huge amount on goal differential in the final game of the season vs Workington, winning 7-1. Which asks me why can't we play like this on a regular basis?

Playoffs came along, and we were drawn vs Barrow. Us at 99 points, and them at 69, we were obviously the favorites. We won 2-0 away on the first leg because of an early red card on their part, and limped through the second with a 2-3 home loss, in a complacency filled 2nd half. We were very lucky to win, but we also blew about 4 or 5 clear cut chances.

Finals vs AFC Telford. We were underdogs for some reason, but ended up winning easily, 4-1, to get PROMOTION! Exactly the aim for this year, trying to get into the playoffs to hopefully get promoted, and it was a very good season. We deserved second, Colwyn Bay were a better team by far and we got lucky they even dropped points to get us back into the race.

Scored 103 goals which was ridiculous. (111 goals after playoffs were done)

Speaking of Colwyn Bay, we faced off 3 times in the season, twice in league and once in the FA Trophy. We beat them 5-2 at home, but lost both times away 1-3 and 0-1 with the latter being the league result. Their manager Dave Challinor won manager of the year, well deserved.

A good run for the club, making it to the first round proper. On the way there, we beat Woodley Sports 2-1, Ashton Utd 2-1, and Droylsden 2-1. Then, we hit a wall in Port Vale, and worse, it was an away match. VERY SAD. Held on to the 80th min with a 0-0 before they broke it open and won 1-0. So close to getting replay and gates, but you can't get them all sometimes. Glad to have made it to First Round proper.

A really nice run, but hit the brick wall known as Colwyn Bay again. Especially happy at the 5-1 replay vs Crewe, really pushed us along in the season with the morale boost. Decent amount of money too.

Odds and Ends

Finances
DECIDED IT WAS A GREAT IDEA TO BUILD A NEW STADIUM AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR. Which led to everyone saying our finances are insecure, even though we were in the black. Oh well, can't win them all. Finances are great, because I play friendlies all the time to boost income. Especially vs Rangers and Celtic. Awwwwww yeah let the money roll in. New stadium will be done next year. Got a really nice budget for next year (initial budget 6.5k, xfer budget at 85k) because of my control over the wage budget and getting so many games in.

Squad List
Very solid team (I had some loan defenders as well that helped out that you don't see here.) Griffin scored most of those goals from a deep lying forward role, which is really nice. He'll be back next year. Signed Maclaren in the middle of the season....RIGHT BEFORE HE WENT THE THE U-19 CHAMPIONSHIP WITH AUSTRALIA. That was facepalm because I did need him then, but when he came back he was match fit and ready to go. Chambers is a new youth product I put right into the side as he wasn't that much worse than Coburn, and I plan playing him when I can next season, and get him lots of friendly games. He looks to be good for a few years if he gets playing time asap. If I end up in BSP for 2 seasons he'll be key in getting us out the second season. Loris Karius is a brilliant goalkeeper and will be joining me again next season, even though he's L2 caliber. Kavanagh is brilliant at this level and improved over the season, which means he'll be key this year as well. Scored quite a few goals from distance and has good creativity.

Looking to Next Year

I plan on strengthening the team with the extra wages I'll have from dead wood leaving. We will need a left back as that position needs improving desperately. I might raid some of the BSN teams for their players with the large transfer budget I will be getting from having such solid finances, but who will actually come is a good question.

Goals for next year
1. Make a profit to continue improving our wage budget so we don't end up being screwed in higher leagues.
2. Cup Runs
3. Solid season, mid-table hopefully, maybe sneaking into playoffs but not a priority.
4. Bring youth along so we have some good backup players for BSP/L2. They all have potential so if I get 1 or 2 of them to meet it, we'll be in good shape.

An amazing first season in the football league with us never being below 8th in the league, we finally finished 6th on 76 pts and set up a meeting against Crewe in the playoff semi, who we duly beat 3-2 to set a second Wembley date of the season this time to play Wycombe in the playoff final.

Our first visit of the season to Wembley had seen us go there as long price underdogs in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final where we were up against a strong Bournemouth side who thumped us 3-0 on a cold wet and windy April Fools Day in front of around 31,500.

But the second trip to Wembley for the playoff final was on a warm May day in front of a crowd of 51,756. We went into the game again as underdogs as this was our 1st season in the football league and we were up against a well established league side in the shape of Wycombe Wanderers. The game was an cagey even affair in terms of possession but we were 3-0 up inside 35 minutes as we made the most of our opportunities in front of goal, we went in 3-1 up after conceding a silly goal 2 minutes before half time. We came out and play with confidence in the 2nd half and stopped Wycombe from having any really chances to get back into the game, and ran out 3-1 winners in the end, meaning we had achieved 3 back to back promotions for a team when i took over that had about 15 players who would just about make it in a few Sunday league football teams is not bad going.

Due to getting to the JPT Final and also the run in the league with us achieving another promotion our finances are in good shape with our current balance being £676,566 which hopefully means the board may invest in some new training facilities or equipment for next season to help with the step up to league 1 level.

Transfers had to be made due to last season promotion as we needed a few players to bolster the squad for the campaign at this higher level, 8 new players were bought in at start of the season and the to my surprise at the start of January window a loan player suddenly appeared in my squad. Turned out board had agreed deal with Millwall to be our parent club but i had not seen any news item informing me of this. But the player loaned was a good back up striker who went straight on the subs bench as he was better than my original choice. Over the course of the year 15 players left for 1 reason or another (contract expired and wouldn't renew, not up to playing at this level). This helped keep the wage budget in check with us not going over the wage budget once all season.

The 1st team in the end was literally the same squad from the last 2 seasons that had done so well for the club, this was helped by the fact we had turned professional. So i could sign them to Full time contracts which meant they trained more which helped improve their stats and also we had more time to prepare for games so they got use to the main tactic i wanted to employ, as well as having time to prepare a second tactic just incase our first one didn't work. The team is now fluent in 2 tactics so will now start to work on a 3rd choice for next season as that is going to be long tough season.

Our best player of the season and the league's top scorer was once again Emmanuel Robinson who due to now being a full time player and training nearly everyday has once again improved stat wise. Emmanuel was scoring for fun at some points in the season but he did suffer a goal drought that lasted for over 13 hours at one stage, but he came through it and carried on from firing in the goals from all over the place.

1) Improve squad were needed for the long season ahead.
2) Avoid relegation if possible as i think this could be a step too far being in our 4th new division in as many years.
3) Improve training facilities and equipment as we have a healthy bank balance so will try to push these through as this will help improve the players and help avoid injuries during training as our current training facilities are so old.

How does everyone keep their finances under control? I'm leaking money, £500k losses in 2 years. I play at least 3 big friendlies at the start of the season but I only make about £10-15k from each.

Wage control, big time. Don't take up wage budget when you don't need to, you should consistently be at the bottom of the salary listing for your division. Rely on youngsters, not overpaid big time stars - this is especially key when you turn professional, as your current players will think they deserve big bucks to turn full time. If that means you have to sell them and find a youngster to replace them, than that's works doubly well (transfer fee received, plus lower wage paid out).

I could only find your update from end of first season, where you paid out £250k in wage costs, so £5k a week. That seems high to me, even if you had 16 really good players on the same wage as Roberts it'd only just come to that amount, so presumably there's some rubbish knocking about in the reserves you need to get rid of?

Also, you were unlucky with cup runs, considering you only had £160k of income, even a couple of rounds further in the main cups would add maybe another 25% onto that and make things look a bit rosier.

I guess one way you could look at it is - for the coming season keep your wages to more or less equal to last year's income. So the season where you had £160k of income, that works out to £3k a week wage budget. Obviously when you get further in the cup or have a televised game, then you could flex yourself further to spend that cash.

BSS and BSP are the worst for finances, because of the small crowds and lack of prize money, once you move on up things get a heck of a lot easier.

Went trawelling through player searches european rejects, to try and strengthen my squad further and ended up signing quite a few after trialling, including my best signing ever.

The season started off dodgy but steadily improved once I switched onto a tactic that Mikael reccommended to me. Since then our football has been much more free flowing, although how it will work next season is beyond me. We had some fanastic runs of form, and I am delighted to say we are promoted as champions. I believe that I only need to make a few tweaks to the squad to stay up this time (at least I really hope so)

We also had a great run in the Johnstones Paint Trophy, where we beat Northampton 5-1 in the Final at Wembley, which the fans and board were delighted with.

Financially we are awful, but I was trying my hardest to stay close to the wage budget, so it could be a lot worse. I just wish the board would increase our scouting range, would be a lot quicker than trialling loads of players!

Aims
Avoid Relegation - I cannot have arepeat of last time, of rock bottom
Sign a couple of key players and hold onto my best players of this season for at least 1 more, unless big big money offers come in for them
Improve finances by not being relegated and perhaps a cup run
Avoid Relegation
Avoid Relegation
Avoid Relegation

It was testament to how close League One was in the 17/18 season that with 32 games gone my team was 5 points from the relegation places and playing poorly. A good run of form saw the table climbed and 5th place and a spot in the playoffs taken. I was hoping for a Wembley appearance to bolster flagging finances but it was not to be. A 2-1 home defeat to Crawley and a 1-0 defeat at the Broadfield Stadium ended hopes of making the Championship at the first time of asking.

I have based my team around good young players, centre backs Chris Jubb and Jordan Lee are both England youth internationals. I realised at the end of September that u21 players from other european nations would come on trial to me so I brought in all the players on frees from all the u21 teams. 7 or 8 got signed up and I put 7 in as first choices. My line up comprised three Czechs, three Danes, A Slovenian and Four Englishmen.

Brizza - I am actually midway through my 3rd season, I owe an update which will be going up tonight. My wage budget for all 3 seasons has been £3.6k per week of which I must average around £2.5k-3k on contracted players. The problem is my pay-as-you-play players I think, I have lots of them to pad out my squad which isn't a problem until I play them. I like to rotate quite a bit however to keep everyone fresh and reduce the chance of injury which is obviously costing me quite a bit. As far as cup competitions go, I haven't been unlucky I've been useless. I've had good draws yet failed miserably.

Another cup defeat to a non-league side, this time it was Hednesford who beat us in the 1st round after we had won 3-0 away to Blue Square North side Hyde in the 3rd qualifying round.

Players

Adam Forshawwon the Blue Square North Player of the Season as well as the Marine Fans’ Player of the Year awards. A brilliant season for him saw him finish with 10 goals and 12 assists in the league from 33 games (2 as a substitute).

Jordan Palmer-Samuelsfinished the season as my top scorer with 21 league goals in 37 games and another 2 goals in 4 cup games.

Adam Kennyis a youth prospect who came through the youth system at Marine towards the end of season 1. In his first season he finished with an average rating of 7.00 after 24 appearances. He has also been trained as a natural centre-midfielder through the course of the season.

This season, my team did a pretty poor impersonation of the Worst Team in the Universe for a good portion of the season. Credit where it's due - the performance got better and better after a poor start where they acted more like an average team. But seriously, of the players who were key players last year, none of them seemed any better than club footballers for a good portion of the season - and some never found form. It was very frustrating. I decided to sacrifice technical ability - or any kind of ability at all - in favour of high mental attributes because my teams kept choking. We started well then get worse, both in matches and in the season. It was a risk, but I had to stop this happening. I went out to sign a few players with a total of at least 35 in Determination, Teamwork and Work Rate, without paying much regard to anything else. I came up with Smith, Hunter, Moore, Paratore and Johnson. However, the run kept going, getting worse and worse through the season until relegation was a serious threat. Then suddenly we scraped an ugly last-minute winner at home to MK Dons, and I wondered if things might start picking up, albeit too late for a promotion push. No. Another false dawn. We were to avoid relegation, but only just. Same old, same old. This is getting dull.

Form did pick up at the end of the season to save me from relegation but I fear it is just a flash in the pan - I cant see much changing quickly at Harrow Stadium. I need the board to back me with higher wage budgets - which we could afford - so I can get a few more top quality players who have the mentality to keep going throughout a match and a season.

Cup runs this year were good fun, with almost all of the ties going to replays, including a fantastic draw at the City Ground with Forest, which was about the highlight of the game so far, really! It's a shame because we led for five minutes before they pegged us back, but we did well to shut them out for the whole of the rest of the game - even if the second game was a disappointment.

Key PlayersChris Bleau*- did a good job for me this season (I'm sorry but I just couldn't resist!). Good signing.Abian Serrano- the guy still cant play as well as his attributes suggest he should.Josh Williams- really disappointing season but still amongst the key players.Malcolm Williams- scraping the barrel a bit here...but he's ok/Robert Paratore- more just one to watch really...signed in March.

Next season, well who knows? Paratore looks a real talent and if I can add one or two more, then we might push for a playoff spot. But with players like Serrano underperforming, it doesnt look good for me.

Targets for 2018/19
FIND SOME FULL BACKS WITH SERIOUS URGENCY. PARTIAL SUCCESS - Williams looks a decent left back, but nothing much on the right still.
Keep up early season form and avoid long barren runs. FAILURE - same old story.
Get at least within 10 points of the playoffs. FAILURE - 20 points off.

Targets for 2019/20
No slumps.
Within 10 points of the playoffs.
Try not to break my laptop when getting angry at my useless players who keep throwing away leads.

In other news, United won the league for the first time since Fergie retired. Their next championship-winning manager? Javier Mascherano. Wolves beat Cardiff in the Cup Final (wierd), whilst the Champions League final saw Man City beat Liverpool on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

PS - the table on the first page is, as you have all noticed, not in operation currently. We're looking into easier ways of doing it, because with so many entrants, it was just becoming a crazy amount of work and was unsustainable. Will let you know when I know more.

A great season taking the title with a draw in the in the 3rd from last game. Same draws as last seasons but alot of losses less. Community Shield win was a good omen and showed sign of what to come from Kelly.
Club InfoSquad StatsTransfersFinancesFacilities

Finances looking very very good mainly down to prize and t.v money. managed to strength the positions we needed.

Great run all the way to the final. Was a tough group but we finished top and shock was that AZ and us had a huge gap over the others. Knock-out stages we came through quite easy. Was shocked to see 2 of my key players called up to there international sides and miss the final. The final we deserved to win and put a decent 2 goal lead early on.

Brizza - I am actually midway through my 3rd season, I owe an update which will be going up tonight. My wage budget for all 3 seasons has been £3.6k per week of which I must average around £2.5k-3k on contracted players. The problem is my pay-as-you-play players I think, I have lots of them to pad out my squad which isn't a problem until I play them. I like to rotate quite a bit however to keep everyone fresh and reduce the chance of injury which is obviously costing me quite a bit. As far as cup competitions go, I haven't been unlucky I've been useless. I've had good draws yet failed miserably.

Ah, gotcha. BSS and BSP are the killers, I can't see that far back now on my game, but I'm sure I hit at least -£500k at some point. Literally the only way out of it is promotion and/or a plum cup draw. I think I made more money than you said off of pre-season friendlies. I played every 2-3 days for the first 3 weeks, then topped off with a couple of easier friendlies against rubbish sides to recover morale. Apart from that, I guess it's a case of hanging in there and hoping...

As an aside - I've found parent clubs much less useful that before. I'm sure in previous incarnations I've been able to get 4-5 players in on loan and fill up my squad like that - meaning only really needing to pay 11-12 proper players, but that doesn't seem to be the case now.

First season in the BSP is, as expected, running rough. Currently 3 points outside of the relegation zone, sitting 20th. Inconsistency pretty much sums up my results so far---I lose 3-0 to the bottom ranked team at home, then go to 1st placed Crewe and salvage a 1-1 draw. My biggest run of defeats is only 3 (most without a win is 4), but I've yet to put more than two wins (or even wins+draws) together. At this point, the FAT and FAC are both over, so I can concentrate on the league for a while.

During the offseason, I offloaded about 1/3 of my squad that I deemed couldn't play at this level....I've brought 9 replacements in, giving me a squad that I hope will take me through the season to safety. I've got about £800 or so free wage budget, and will likely offload a couple more players at the end of December to free up a little more budget...I've tagged a couple of scout reports to follow up on....a playmaker and another striker that might serve in place of a couple that just aren't cutting it now.

23 down, 23 to go....if my 2nd half plays out the same (I double my points total), I'll end on 50 points, which, historically, have been enough to survive the drop.

But, at the moment, it's too close for comfort. A drop in form at the wrong time might send me spiraling down. It hopefully won't come to that...

Only positive at the moment, finances aren't going to out of control....board has already dumped £180K into the club this season (several small cash injections over the course of the season). With no cup income, it'll be needed, as I'm still £160k in the red.

Well in other Transfer News i just got an offer for one of my best rated players, and he wanted to leave the club. So i am selling him for 425k (Not bad money for a L1 side) It is more than double my current bank balance

So our first season in the BSP was pretty unspectacular. We never looked like being either promoted or relegated, and drifted into mid-table nothingness for most of the season.

The cups went better this year. FA Cup was a disappointing 1st round loss to to York. However the FA Trophy was much more successful! After some tricky ties (including beating Kettering in the semis on penalties after losing the 2nd leg at home 3-5, after a 2-0 win away in the 1st leg!) we progressed to meet league champions Dagenham and Redbridge in the final at Wembley!

A crowd of over 22,000 came to see us sneak a last minute win, from a guy who took over 18 hours to score his first goal for us, Ahmed Abdulla coming off the bench to score an injury time winner to make it 2-1!

Key players:

Callum McNaughton - Carried on from last season, and was the rock of our defence.Andy Popovich - Aussie u-21 internation we signed at the start of the season. Looks like he could be a key player for years to come!Dave Byrne - Irish 21 year old, good target man. Top scorer for the season.Enric Valles - Spanish left midfielder. Weighed in with a few goals, but not enough assists for my liking.Massimo Luongo - Former Spurs Italian midfielder - spent 6 months trying to get him before he signed in January. Very disappointing return considering his stats.

We did however get Danny Hall through the youth side this year, who my coaches think could reach championship level ability. He even made a good debut aged just 15 in a fantastic 2-0 away win against Stockport.

Objectives for next season - Hopefully if we get the right players in, we should be able to sneak into the playoffs.

Oh and just checked my rep. We are now above 4 BSN/BSS teams for rep... for about another week. As they are the 4 teams who just got relegated.

Surely by now we would at least have a higher rep than some BSN or BSS teams, having stayed in the BSP for a season and won the FA trophy? This is really starting to bug me tbh.

It really annoyed me too, some other people have made the fair point that in terms of transfer negotiations (both buying and people thinking about leaving) the pure team reputation that you see on that screen is only part of the deal, with other modifying factors including your own manager reputation and also the reputation of the competition(s) that you're in. That seemed fair enough for me - certainly seems correct when I look at the sorts of players who would join me, compared to my so-called reputation.

Yeh I've read people saying that too Brizza, but it doesn't hold up for me.

At the moment, I'm currently approaching players who are not interested, who go on to sign for non-league teams (never mind BSS or BSN) just days later. In fact, guys who at the end of last season were interested, but were nowhere near good enough for my side, are now my only options.

Basically it seems I have to play until january with a minimal squad, and hope that the new signings in January are enough to take me up, which is pretty far fetched.

Premier LeagueLeague Table | Position Graph
A fantastic season, soured by the most gutting end of it. For so long we were challenging United for 1st place. And then came the time to do it. We had a game in hand against Sunderland in the final month of the season, and drew 2-2. This completely killed our hopes of winning the league. If we'd beaten Sunderland rather than drawn, we could have went to Man Utd on the penultimate game of the season and clinched it. Absolutely gutting. On the plus side, we get Champions League, so can't complain too much.

FA CupFixtures | Final
No replays this year, but the cup team were back. Dominating throughout the cup, but the final was nervewracking. We did it though, and that's a second consecutive FA Cup win, and a third consecutive FA Cup final.

We seemed a completely different side in the Europa League this year. Yes, we were brilliant last year, but this year we were on another level. Sailed through the groups with ease. Completely destroyed FC Twente 8-1 on aggregate in the 1st Knockout Round. The second round was a bit harder, with Valencia keeping it level at 1-1, and somehow I went through on away goals. In the quarters, we beat Monaco 2-0 on aggregate. Back to normal in the semis, beating Dortmund 5-1 on aggregate. In the final, Feyenoord were our victims, and we won 3-0. Another Europa League in the bag, making that 2 years running.

European Super CupReal Madrid v FC United
This was the match that convinced me to buy Ursula. I was shocked to find he was transfer listed after this game! However, the main thing bout this match was that it was an unbelievable game. If I could be arsed to save highlights, I would. In the end, it went to pens and we won 4-3. Not happy about the fact we were 2-0 up and lost that lead, but can't grumble at the win, and finding Ursula through this match was completely worth it.

Community ShieldManchester United v FC United
Another fantastic match, with us getting the upper hand. Braima played in goal for this game and was unstoppable in the shootout, saving all three pens. Nice to know we're capable of winning shootouts.

Carling CupFixtures | Final
Yet another good cup run here, making it 2 years in a row. Pretty straight forward throughout, with one hiccup at Southampton, in which we won on pens... again. Got a bit nervous about the 2nd leg of United, but we kept the lead. The final against City was something else though, we were fantastic! Pillar decided he was going to become good in this game, since he'd been awful all season, only scoring 8 in all competitions. However, in the season I'm currently playing now, I sold him for 23.5m. Not bad for 8 goals, and I only signed him for less than a million.

Fan's Player of the YearAlfonso Gonzales Rodriguez-Bobada
Bobada got Fan's Player of the Year this year, although I'm adamant he shouldn't have got it. I'll explain that later. He did very well though. He scored 23 goals in all competitions, but this is in a team where everybody scores. I mean, Franks got 19 and Frank got 18. That's how many were scored.

The Millward Player Choice AwardManager's Player of the YearFabian Breuer
There's a general rule with this award, which is that no player can win this award in simultaneous seasons. Well, I'm throwing that rule out of the window for this one. Fabian Breuer was incredible. 16 goals in all competitions, proving that everybody scores. 17 assists. With him in the side, we go to another level. He is my German David Silva. Without him, we'd be nothing. Worth 8m as of the end of this season, but in the current one that I'm playing, he's shot up to 22.5m. Not bad for someone who I signed on a free in the Championship eh?

The Jordan Swinburn AwardThe Surprise of the Season Award
Winning everything we could except the Premier League. Still bitter about that.

So, we've now won the FA Cup twice, Carling Cup twice, Europa League twice, Super Cup and Community Shield. We came second in the league and have Champions League to look forward to. The aim for next season... everything. I want everything. After coming so close to the title this season, I have to win it next season. And with the way I'm beating teams, the Champions League should be pretty doable.

As of this update, I'm actually in October in my season. I've decided to create a team of one single nationality... but not English. I'm going German. Lots of ins in January, and lots of rather big-money outs. Spoiler alert, I've won the Community Shield and Super Cup again. After the start to the season that we've had, my aim is not only to win everything, but better the Arsenal 'invincibles' season. That means 27 league wins and no losses, domestic cup finals and Champions League semis.

Felt very confident going into the season but a lack of goals held me back in the early part of the season. Flemming's arrival in nov and then Zima on loan in Jan solved that and i got into the playoffs soon after. A winless March meant i missed out on automatic promotion and had to settle for the playoffs and Crewe.
After winning the first leg 2-0 at home i lost the 2nd leg 2-0. In ET i went down to 10 men with 8 mins remaining before then scoring, only to concede in the 121st min. Luckily i went through on penalties. I lost 3 players to injury between the playoffs and the final including both centre backs. This proved crucial as the team lost 2-1 even though they had more chances and 60% possession.
In the FA cup i beat L1 Exeter 4-1 at home after drawing the first match 2-2. In the 2nd Rd i drew 3-3 away at my parent club L1 Scunthorpe. I won the replay 3-0 and faced Premiership Burnley at home in the 3rd Rd losing 5-1 after chasing the game late on. In the league cup i beat championship Barnsley 3-1 at home before losing 3-0 away to premiership Bolton. In the JPT thrashed scunthorpe 4-0 before losing to L2 Burton 1-0 at home.
Finances stayed even mostly through getting to the playoff final.

This season was mostly about getting rid of some of the players who had helped the club upto to L2 and were now longer up to the standard. Dick (133 apps 13 goals) Bijev (89 apps 30 goals) Nditi (124 apps 7 goals) and Dunn (102 apps 15 goals) were all let go. Tank (187 apps 26 goals) also left in jan going to L1 Reading, he was 3rd choice and out of contract, his performances in L2 had been very disappointing.
Coming in Kucera did well and i have high hopes for Brandt and Yilmaz. Zima came on loan to boost the squad but the best player was Flemming, his pace caused all sorts of problems and with a full season i hope he can prove the difference.

All I can say is we are miles stronger than last time we attempted a season in League 1. We stayed up, and if it wasnt for an end of season dramatic slump in form we would have had playoffs or possible automatic promotion. Not too upset that didnt happen, as we definitely aren't good enough to survive a Championship season, so best staying where we are for another year or two, while I sort things out.

It pains me to say thay I may have to let a star striker go, purely because 3 red cards in sucessive games he was not suspended for, isnt really good, he missed at least 10 games i think due to suspension which is pathetic, that and he wants more than triple the salary hes currently on, and I'm not willing to go that high!

We had a great run to the 5th round of the FA Cup, where Crewe unfortunately beat us in the end. We didnt take out any big name scalps but a cup run always is good.

We also had yet another board takeover (2nd so far), and they have said they have no plans for investment so not too impressed.

Aims

New Strikers
Backup on all positions
Improve midfield
Dont slump in end season
Cup run in a competition
At least a top half finish

I suppose this must be classed as a successful season in the end. Lost my first 6 league games leaving me rock bottom and unable to see a way out straight away. At the end of October I had a record of P12 W2 D0 L10 which had me luckily second bottom due to Bedford's ineptitude. After a few more iffy results I went on a run of only 3 defeats in 19 games which pretty much ensured my safety. Only 3 more wins came from the last 12 games but by that stage we were already OK.

Didn't do anything of note in the cups. Got to the 3rd qualifying round of the FA Cup and first round proper of the FA Trophy before being knocked out.

Star Man:Abubakar Sheego, or Sheeeeeeeeeeeeegs to his fans, was excellent. Also my only international player, a Somali international. We may have gone further had he not missed 5 and a half months of the season at various stages due to injury, but 16 goals in 20 games is a fantastic return. Easily top scorer even though he played far fewer games than most.

Aims For Next Season:
Consolidate. Promotion is probably too far away, but a solid season would be fine for me. I also need to trim the squad as I signed alot of dross in desperation in the first few months of the season.

Well, I was not expecting that this season! We totally exceeded my expectations with some decent wins but it was thanks to a last game draw with Liverpool that put us into an automatic group stage of the Champions League. We made the Final of the F.A Cup but we finished up with 8 men on the pitch and lost 1-0 after extra time.

Best result: Any of the four out of four we pulled off against Real Madrid
Worst result: The League Cup wasn't our finest hour...
Top goalscorer: Sobrino 51 (36 in the league)
Most assists: Portero 38
Highest Average rating: Sobrino 7.61

Season Review:

The Premier League was a walk in the park, which I didn't expect at all. Man City were on our tails most of the way, but it turned out they had a tough run in and so fell away giving us the title with 3 games left. We managed a record number of points in the end.

The Champions League final was pretty tough going, we were on our last legs in terms of injuries by then, so it was pleasing that Leworthy came up with the goods in what'll certainly be his last game for the club!!

That's me done now. I'll keep this save hanging around in case Sobrino tempts me back, but for the time being I'm a bit bored of Carshalton. Instead, I'm going to Iceland to take on Gundo's challenge, which is pretty much the same as this one, but takes in the small leagues instead. Good luck to everyone with their challenge, I'll still be reading.

Gilbster - Great season staying up.
Sheppardinio - Great first season.
Dan BHTFC - Great season and good luck in Champions League
Brizza - Well Done on completing the challenge. Unsure what I'm going to do got Razer82's and Big Euro Challenges on the go but not feeling them currently and fancy a change from T&M for a bit.

The summer saw a flurry of activity, as I tried to plug some of the remaining gaps. My decent left back, Williams, got poached by a league one team, so I was back from the dizzy heights of having one decent full back to none at all. I found a couple of promising England trialists and put them into the team, hoping for the best. But the rest of the team was a different story. I finally changed formation to a 4-1-2-3 which looked very attacking but it was the only formation that really fit my team, as I had no decent wingers.

It was a fantastic success, an almost overnight transformation. OK, not quite overnight as the tactic took some time to bed down, and we got 1 win, 5 draws and 3 defeats from our opening 9 matches. But from then on, we climbed the table fast, and for the second half of the season, thought we were hovering just outside the playoff zone, the games in hand meant that it was within our grasp for a major part of it.

In fact, going into the last four games, we were huge favourites to get into the playoffs, but a GreyedOut team being a GreyedOut team, we choked, and going into the last day we were relying on other results going out way, having lost two of the previous three to Bury and Gateshead. However, results did go our way and 86 minutes into the game against Grimsby, leading 2-1, we were there in the playoffs. But, horror upon horrors, in the 87th minute, Grimsby equalised, and the playoffs were snatched away. A cruel ending to a really good season. If you'd offered me 7th at the start I would have bitten your hand off, but at the end of the season it felt like a disaster!

Cup runs this year might have been a highlight in another season, were it not for the dramatic happenings in the league. In the FA Cup, we were unlucky to draw Barnet in the first round, and did well to take it to a replay but for the second year running we were destroyed within a few minutes of the start of the replay. A creditable effort, however. But in the FA Trophy, things were much better, as we went to Wembley for the first time. We were up against BSP champions Bury. After winning it once on penalties only to suffer a laptop freeze, it was inevitable we'd lose the "replay", right?

It felt all the sweeter having had to do it twice, and the second time with ten men! Wierdly, it was a lot easier the second time - the penalties had finished 4-3 after EIGHT penalties each, with only one of the first six having been scored! It was a fantastic end to a good, albeit ultimately frustrating, season.

Key PlayersWilfred Adams*- undoubtedly the main factor behind our rise. Top quality defender.Chris Bleau- though not this season a prolific scorer, he did a good job for the team.Abian Serrano- sort of opposite to Bleau, Serrano didn't really have a great season but was the top scorer. His goals came in clumps - he scored three hat-tricks and a brace this season but went missing too often.Giasoumis Avgousti- the driving force behind the team - he's a midfield general.Harry Haynes- assessing the squad at the start of the season I couldnt believe my eyes! Having been a bit-part player he really came on, and now looks quality. More goals would be good but he contributes well in other ways, too (63 Key Passes).Josh Williams- although overshadowed by Adams, he's still a top class defender.

Next season, we need to kick on from the disappointment of this one. This was undoubtably a step forward but the fear is that we could be a flash in the pan.

Targets for 2019/20
No slumps. SUCCESS - although without mini-slumps at the start and end, we would have been promoted automatically, we didnt have a dramatic slump as we have in past seasons.
Within 10 points of the playoffs. SUCCESS - being two points off the playoffs feels gut-wrenching, but it is definitely a big target hit.
Try not to break my laptop when getting angry at my useless players who keep throwing away leads. SUCCESS - I am writing this report despite throwing away such a crucial lead that would have got us a playoff spot in the last game! Not to mention the laptop crashing just as I finished writing this report, obliterating an FA Trophy win.

Targets for 2020/21
Keep the squad together.
Add a sprinkling of star players of L1 standard or so.
Get promoted, pure and simple.

PS - the table on the first page is, as you have all noticed, not in operation currently. We're looking into easier ways of doing it, because with so many entrants, it was just becoming a crazy amount of work and was unsustainable. Will let you know when I know more.

Star players:
1- Bernard Mensah - Came through as a surprise package this season with 12 goals and 12 assists.
2- Darnel Situ - Another solid season from the French defender, although we will probably lose him when his contract expires as wage increase bonuses have made his demands almost impossible to meet.
3- Leonardo Batres - A young Spanish midfielder who was only signed as a squad player, but forced his way into the first team with this cracking goal and never looked back.

Notable mentions: Top scorer Tetteh Bangura and our most dangerous striker Derek Wright, who was yet again unfortunate with injury in the second half of the season. And goalkeeper Stuart McNeil had another remarkably solid season, although his wage demands may see him leave next year.

Encouraging first season in Premier League. Finished 13th which I am quite happy with. Signed again this year many potentiel good german young players, and used our finances to increase wage budget. Haven't been able to find any really strong players to make a difference, but did buy Pirulito from Arsenal for 7 mill, and hope he can make a difference. Unfortunately, he spend most season being injured.. Found 2 new keepers, and the next season or 2 will hopefully make them, or atleast one of them a solid first choice. Having "low" wages still, the TV revenue really helped our finances alot.

Cup run was actually really encouraging. Despite only getting to 5th round in the FA Cup, we got to semi finals in the League cup. Playing 1-1 at home vs Arsenal, hope was there but really believing in it wasn't, as Arsenal trounced us 5-0 away.

Not many players really made a huge impact over the season - but i did find out, that having a large squad and keeping players motivated is a challenge.

DEF:
- Carl Flynn: Had a good season and is playing solid, but age and stats isn't PRM material.
- Abubakar Tagoe: New signing previously FC Bayern. Having high hopes for this one.

MID:
- Marcos Costa: Despite our "poor" league position he was amazing and made 16 assists.
- Busão: New signing from Santos: Amazing prospect and really hope he can make a good impact soon.
ATT:
- Anis Mhadhebi: His 5th season at club. Only striker that is potentially good, this he will make a good impact over the next seasons.

1) do your scouts ever give you information on the size of your next oppositions pitch any more? I used to make changes to my starting tactics depending for narrow or short pitches in previous FMs
2) has anyone ever managed to succesfully appeal a work permit decission?

Last year we managed to secure the BSS title and so this was to be our first season in the BSP.

League – It was a bit of a rollercoaster season. We started well enough and with much promise. But as quick as it started it began to go down hill and come February, we found ourselves losing five games on the trot and languishing in 16th. Our poor form was turned around with a win against an on-form Wrexham side and we began to climb and show the form I thought we were capable of. We were chasing the playoffs from afar and with so few games left, it felt like it was going to be too little too late… sadly, it was. It’s gutting to think I was a win away from the playoffs.

FA Trophy – Lost in the 1st round to Burton.FA Cup – Lost in the 2nd round to Kidderminster after beating Hartlepool in the 1st round. We missed the extra revenue that a longer cup run would have given.

Squad – A very, very solid looking squad who could have achieved a lot more this year gone. Maybe additions of a couple of wide players will help. But I do feel as though this same squad could achieve more next year without many changes .Transfers – A selection of new defenders and midfielders, later followed by a couple more and a new striker to try and help improve our scoring. It didn’t quite pay off as hoped. A few loans out to keep players from upsetting the squad and from costing us money in releasing them.Finances – An end of year £70k cash injection didn’t really help the finances.

Objectives – Build upon the success of this year. We had a solid year and with perhaps a few additions and a bit more goal scoring from our more than capable strikers, we can take the title. Play like we did at the end of the season and it will be a walk in the park, Forest Green style.
A solid cup run would be warmly welcomed in terms of finances, but can I really afford it on the legs.
Hiring a couple more staff members is on the card with extra spaces allocated to me by the board. Hopefully the wage budget will allow this.

A cracking first season at this level with us finishing in an impressive 8th position, and one point we could have may the playoffs but for the usual lack of form around January/February. What may also of helped is if we could have kept a clean sheet now and again, the annoying thing was we finally kept 6 clean sheets in last 8 games of the season but this was too late for a push for the playoffs. TableGraph

Nothing to write home about in the cups this year with only winning 1 game in the 3 competitions we entered.

On the squad front 16 youth and rubbish reserve players where let go over the season, the board also sold a player as they said it was an offer they couldn't refuse but it was my 1st choice left back. okay it was for a £1 million so may be able to improve youth and training facilities next season.
We signed 7 players over the summer to bolster the squad depth, the best of these signings must be the Qatar right sided midfielder Yasser Hussian who came on trial with us and agreed a contract as he like what the club's about and are trying to do. SquadTransfersFinances

Best player of the season was again Emmanuel Robinson who played all 51 games this season, scoring 27 goals in the process.

Plans for next season:

1) Improve squad
2) Push for the playoffs
3) Improve training and youth facilities
4) Have a cup run

Summary: A decent season, we did more than just survive in the BSP, pulling away from the relegation zone in the autumn as the team got used to a higher standard of football and improved accordingly. Chairman Hearn gave us a decent wage budget so we didn't lose too many of last year's promotion-winning squad, and some of the youngsters are starting to step up now. We were safe quite early, and well away from the play-offs, so I blooded a few promising youngsters and they performed pretty well. Went to the 3rd round of the FA Cup, beating L1 Preston before losing to Fulham. Both at home, but both on TV, so we made a bit of money this season and are well in the black. Finances

Transfers:Transfers The usual turnover of youth prospects but a few more quality players as the wage budget increases a little.

Future prospects: Should be a good season next year. We have a good core of players that will still be here next year; those we're losing because of high wage demands have cover even if we can't bring in any reinforcements.

Well, i got so carried away with my save i forgot to post my end of season 2 review, so here it is, but a little shorter than usual

After Promotion to the Blue Square Premier, i felt the squad would certainly hold its own, but needed some improvements and after a bit of wheeling and dealing i was happy that the squad would be capable of a mid table finish and prevent a drop straight back down.

A solid but unspectacular start to the season saw us comfortably in the Play Off Places from early on and we maintained this level throughout the season, a few bad runs saw us drop out but never to far behind on pts, We secured our play off place and met Grimsby in the Semi final a 1-0 home victory, followed by a 1-1 away from home saw us into the final against Luton,We were massive underdogs and went behind in the 1st half. however a good rollicking at half time sent the players out all fired up and within 10 minutes we were 2-1 ahead thanks to a Johan Hammer header and a Jake Nicholson Penalty. Then it was backs to the wall as Luton pressed but we held out for our second succesive promotion, both via the play offs

FC United's German Engineering
In October, I decided I wanted to try something. I wanted a team of entirely one nationality... that wasn't English. The thing was, I didn't want to lose Fabian Breuer. So, immediately, I chose German. The cull started. Offers were in for the best German talent I could find, and sold were the players who weren't German. I got some damn good money for some players, such as Victor. I also found a few gems through this, such as a central midfielder from Vauxhall whose name I will not repeat due to stupid characters (See Transfers). By the end of January, the cull was complete. Anyone who wasn't German was out. The very few who weren't, reserved. You'll see in the squad that there's a Bosnian and Serbian in there. They are in fact German, both have second nationalities, but not from playing in that country, so they count.

This system appeared to work. Chemistry, with them all being from one country, was clearly quite high. The goals poured in, the play was amazing for a team of Germans, but the main thing was that we were robust. German engineering at it's finest. FC United, sponsored by BMW.

Premier LeagueLeague Table | Position Graph
We finally did it, and completely unbeaten. We had our own 'Invincibles' season, and beat Arsenal's record in the process. Unbelievable season with some very very good results. Can't say much more than the screenshot doesn't show.

FA CupFixtures | Final
Standard FA Cup run for us, really. The final was a bit tough, but we handled it well. Another cup in the bag, and our unbeaten run in all comps extended.

This was unbelievable. In the groups, we had fantastic results such as 9-3 against HSV and 8-0 against PSV. In the 1st knockout round we had the 6-1 win against Lyon at home. Then after beating Porto in the quarter finals, that 4-2 win against Real Madrid at home. Then came the big one... Barcelona. Anyone else, I'd have been confident. But since it was Barcelona, I was terrified. And they gave me every right to be, taking it to extra time. But then, Hoeneß and Sampedro saved the day. The fact we had 31 shots against them, and had the majority of possession against Barcelona was fantastic. Fully deserved, and Breuer was fantastic in this game. Breuer got Champions League player of the year. The fact we went unbeaten through all this was also excellent!

UEFA Super CupManchester United v FC United
Oh, this was a brilliant game. Seven! Pure domination. Ben Morrell's sending off helped a bit, and when you read ahead to the Community Shield game, you'll see it was a recurring theme with him. Another cup in the bag!

Community ShieldManchester United v FC United
The warmup to the Super Cup. A nice 4-2 win, and the start of Morrell's sending off spree. Julian Bedford was an absolute star, but with my plan to go all German, he had to go.

Carling CupFixtures | Final
This is becoming routine now. Good run throughout, but wow did Burnley spring a surprise on me. That game was tough as anything! Fortunately, Hoeneß saved the day and spared us some rather large blushes.

Fan's Player of the YearFabian Breuer
I'll pretty much say everything here... Breuer won everything. Fans player of the year, my player of the year, Top scorer with 27, most appearances, Champions League best player. Premier League footballer of the year, was in Player's Team of the Year. Everything. He was simply outstanding. 27 goals, 29 assists. Unreal.

Got in a few strengthened signings, including an improved goalie and spend a fair amount of the season, rejecting good money offers for my best players. Although I could do with the money, I'd rather have the players sometimes. I also didnt sell the stirker I was thinking about selling, and eventually renegotiated a better contract. He was my star player of the season, very happy with him this year, and I will try my hardest not to sell him over the summer we will need him.

The season went better than I could have imagined, we were there or there abouts all season, with some impressive runs of form, and a real rivalry going with Peterborough. We made it to the 4th round of the FA Cup wher we were beaten by Championship Charlton (which worries me a bit), but did manage to beat Frome in round 3, in what would have been a biggish money tie for them! We also got to and won the Johnstones Paint Trophy final against Peterborough. League cup was a waste of effort. We secured the promotion with 3 games left and the title with 1 game to spare, so are going up as champions.

Got to really improve the squad for next season, but learnt from lessons last time and wont sign any until after league rest date, or else I have to give out instant pay rises to players iwth promotion clauses. All I want from next season is survival, and some improved finances.

Aims:

Avoid Relegation x a million!!
Strengthen squad somehow
Hope board has sense and ups scouting range since I need a greater variety of sources for players in Championship
Enjoy the season, and survive!

Best result: 1-0 win home against Leicester(PL) in the FA Cup 3rd round
Worst result: The above-mentioned loss to Torquay(L2)
Top goalscorer: Christian Christensen, 38(33 in League one)
Most assists: Henning Olsen, 14(13 in L1) & Elaninho, 14 (12 in L1)
Highest Average rating: Christian Christensen, 7.41 (7.51 in BSP)

2016-17 Season Review:

Not many additions to an overperforming squad. A couple of danes entered the club and performed well enough to go straight up through League One. I hadn't expected this kind of succes, but the danes really brought a lot to the team. great season.

Ian Smyth - D L - Signed last winter. Starting to show his real colours. Will be key the next season.

Henning Olsen - DM/M C - will be hard to keep him here, due to his undeniable ability to play for better clubs.

Maurinho - AM R/S C - Jose Mourinho's brazilian cousin Maurinho was as predicted a key part of the team.

2017-18 Season Preview:

Well, my guys keep performing. We'll be battling relegation and will make another objective if we're performing well during the first half of the season. Besides this, it's important to get some prize money through the cups

After a really good, although ultimately anti-climactic, season last year, I was keen to build on that. There was no resting on laurels as I searched for the two or three players that could turn my team into automatic promotion material.

It seemed to work and we were top of the league for well over half the season. But my squad was too thin, and suddenly, when all my full backs got poached because they were on non-contracts, and Chris Bleau forced my hand by not agreeing to a new contract thus necessitating his hasty sale for 30k plus a future fee, I had only 17 first-team players left. A couple of injuries at a time, fairly constantly through the rest of the season, meant that my title tilt faded away so badly that the playoff place even looked in doubt. We stumbled over the line eventually, however. But the contrast between the first half of the season and the second half of the season was stark and it worried me.

Cup runs this year saw our first trip to the FA Cup Third Round, but we were unlucky to draw Championship Brighton, who offered neither any chance of progression nor any major windfall. Oh well. We made up for it in the FA Trophy, retaining our title with a penalty victory over Lincoln.

Key PlayersChris Bleau- made a huge contribution before leaving for Bradford. His contract was nearly up so I had to cash in.Wilfred Adams- not quite as impressive as last year but still a good player.Harry Haynes*- finding his feet at this level. For him, not getting promoted might turn out to be a good thing.Abian Serrano- awesome player, and his injury does at least mean I wont be forced to sell him!Giasoumis Avgousti- assists still very high, he's a very creative player which is odd for a "DM".Josh Williams- poor season by his standards, but made 24 key tackles, almost three times as many as anyone else!

KEY RECORDS BROKENJosh Williams broke the club's League Appearance record.
Highest League Position.
Serrano extended his record for the most goals for the club - he now has 83.
Highest transfer fee paid: £14k for James Budd.
Fastest goal - Harry Haynes - 20 seconds in the FA Trophy Semi-Final.

Next season, we simply must get promoted. I need to improve squad depth and try to add a bit more quality to the side, especially as we will miss Serrano for a few months.

Targets for 2020/21
Keep the squad together. FAILURE - the left back situation was annoying, although selling Bleau was necessary.
Add a sprinkling of star players of L1 standard or so. FAILURE - no new players in the key player section which is worrying.
Get promoted, pure and simple. FAILURE but at least we made the playoffs this year. Given our start, though.....

Targets for 2021/22
Promotion.
More quality in the squad.
Improve depth so that injury crises dont hit too hard.

In other news, Wigan sensationally beat Man Utd in the Cup Final, Spurs' draw against Swansea on the last day cost them their first title in ages in a year ending in 1, and they ended up 3rd, in a ridiculously tight finish, with City on 76, United on 75 and Spurs also on 75 but with a goal difference inferior by 5. Spurs also lost the Europa League final. I wont be shedding any tears. Just to top it off, United lost 5-0 to Real Madrid in the UCL.

PS - the table on the first page is, as you have all noticed, not in operation currently. We're looking into easier ways of doing it, because with so many entrants, it was just becoming a crazy amount of work and was unsustainable. Will let you know when I know more.

Crazy season. After going down 1-2 at home to Southend on Boxing Day, I sat 16th in the league after 22 matches. Comfortably away from relegation, but no real threat to the playoffs either.

From that point onwards, I went 17-7-0, scoring 52 goals and conceding only 11 in the final 24 league games, to clinch automatic promotion on the penultimate weekend. Somewhat fittingly, it was achieved with a 1-0 win at Southend - league position graph.

Unfortunately I could only muster a 0-0 at home to Fleetwood on the final day, and a win would have given me the title, but one can't be too greedy. Claiming Manager of the Season for the second season running was a nice way to finish.

Cups

FA Cup - Lost 1-2 at L1 side Peterborough in a 2nd Round replay.League Cup - Lost 1-3 at L1 side Brighton in the 1st Round.Johnstone's Paint Trophy - Lost 1-2 to L1 side Brighton in the 1st Round.

Notable Players

Sam Baxter - Mr Reliable between the sticks, and did not miss a game all season. Most clean sheets in the league and goes into the new season having gone over 650 minutes without conceding.

Lukas Charvat and Mantas Mockus - Two summer signings who defied their tender ages to produce many a mature display. Combined with captain Parmenter to give me three excellent centre-halves to rotate.

Raymond Hanna - Overcame a slow start to make the divisional team of the season, and continued to bomb forward at every opportunity.

Carl Barrett - Once again ran the show from central midfield, and delivered set pieces like a boss.

Karim Annan and Gelu Plesca - Patrolled the wings to great effect. I have particularly high hopes for the little Romanian.

Frode Dyrseth - Sat in the hole and was involved in most attacks. His return from a dislocated shoulder at the end of December coincided with our blinding run of form.

Joakim Skaane - Where to begin? Promoted to club vice-captain, didn't score in his first eight games, then started to get a few here and there, before absolutely exploding in the second half of the season. Won the league golden boot with 30 strikes, and all on a part time training schedule as I have not been able to afford his wage demands to go full time all season long. Will try asking him to reduce his wage demands once he ticks over into the final year of his contract, and if he won't I'll probably have to try and sell, which might be tricky given he's a club favourite and lists me and Canvey Island as his favourites.

Next season...

Survival will be fine, especially with four relegation places, but a successful first campaign in our new stadium would be nice.

Challenging for playoff spot, finally get in and then have the inexplical run of form that means key players can't pass, shoot or cross, opposing keepers save 3 or 4 clear cut chances, and i hit the bar 10 times in 4 matches. FML

Just finished 3rd in my Champions League group of Real Madrid, Marseille and Leverkusen, Marseille drew their last group game with Real Madrid to pinch 2nd place from us on goal difference, oh well, it's gonna be at least another season before I finish this challenge!

No real new signings for my second year in the BSP with a reduced budget. With mostly the same side playing that ended last season, we are actually doing quite well, as opposed to how I thought we would after our first two games. We could have done this well last year, but form wasnt to be. This year things look different. Hopefully a good cup run will come with it because our finances are becoming ever more shocking. Promotion and a good cup run is all I ask for... not much eh? ha

However, this time, I'm not interested in getting to the top as quick as I can. I want a nice long, steady build.

Short Term Aims
1. Strengthen a very small squad.
2. Get some income in. We only have 30k in the bank.

Long Term Aims
1. Try and stay in the black at all times.
2. Never get consecutive promotions. I want time to build.
3. Establish a good youth system as early as possible.
4. Consistently have a good English contingent.
5. Never break the wage budget.

Guys, I want some advice. I sold a key player (won't say who and spoil my update) at the start of the season for £110k plus 50% of a future fee. I have just noticed that there is a buyout available for £242k. He's playing for Southampton in the Premiership but hasn't coped well with the jump up by 4 leagues and isn't doing very well. He's still valued at £110k at the moment, and is 24 years old. Should I cash in and get the £242k? I'm not in desperate need of the money, I'm healthily in the black to the tune of about 400k and though that drops steadily through the season, the pre-season friendlies tend to more or less break us even. Thoughts?

Sounds like definitely worth taking the money if he's only worth £110k. If he does end up being sold for £500k it sounds like it'd be a while down the line and you may as well have had the cash now (even if you are in the black).

Sounds like definitely worth taking the money if he's only worth £110k. If he does end up being sold for £500k it sounds like it'd be a while down the line and you may as well have had the cash now (even if you are in the black).

Makes me think it's worth holding off for now to see if he gets any better. He wont be sold for at least a couple of years, and in another year or so, I'll have a better idea of how much he's likely to go for.

Also, though I was given the option in a monthly finances report, I cant find how to cash the clause in now even if I wanted to!

I felt my team was strong enough for automatic promotion going into the season, long term injuries to my first choice two strikers de-railed these hopes however. Muhendis Karakas, my Turkish u21 striker signed from Birmingham who I have spent the prior season trying to get off the wage bill came into the team and contributed 13 goals but with a combination of midfielder and wingers playing along side him too many winable games were drawn.

I eventually finished 3rd, 8 points adrift of automatic promotion. Crawley were dispatched in the play-off semi finals 3-0 on aggregate setting up a final at Wembley against Newport County. I fancied my chances in this game but despite taking a first half lead through star Czech midfielder Jan Vecara, Newport pulled back to take a 2-1 lead. This looked to be how it would finish but in the 88th minute Vecara scored again with a cracking long ranger to level matters. Italian midfielder Nicola Mascetti scored in extra time and this proved enough for Hastings take the victory and a place in the championship.

Vecara is possibly the most promising player in the team, another player released in the summer who I picked up on trial and subsequently signed. The best player in the team though is Chris Jubb who has now been with the club for two seasons.

Hopefully my financial situation in the championship will improved, I have been losing around 1.2 million per season before transfers for the past three seasons. This has meant that I have had to sell my best players to make up the difference each season. If I keep to signing good young players the TV revenue in the championship should make a significant difference. Upgrades to the training facilities are a priority at this stage however which could prove costly but is essential as the development of my younger players is being stunted.